Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Formula 1 2013 best and worst

MILAN - highs and lows from the 2013 season... definitely a year to forget.
The most emblematic, symbolic photo is the Red Bull without a driver (Vettel retiring at the British GP), a car that could win without a driver...

HIGHS

1) Mark Webber, a pleasant surprise to discover, now that he's retiring from this sport because of Red Bull "not helping" him (... euphemism), that he's an intelligent and honest man. Red Bull clearly gave him a different car from Vettel's, and Mark often had to retire because of technical problems.

...also, hilarious team radio messages, adding excuses (as if they let him battle with Vettel... not...), to keep him behind...

2) boos against arrogant Vettel when he was on the podium of several GPs (not only Monza as many say). He always missed the point, saying it's because he's not driving a Ferrari... he even touched racism, saying Italians boo all the drivers if they don't drive a Ferrari... absolutely not.

He often tried hard to sound funny, a positive character, but the result was being ridiculous.
He also accused other drivers of "hanging their balls in the pool on Fridays"... it's easy to talk like that, driving a Red Bull...

4) comeback of the year: Jenson Button's recovery in Brazil (from 14th on the grid to 4th at the chequered flag) to land McLaren's best result of the season. Typical Jenson :) (the best comeback ever: Canada 2011, Button from last position, beating Vettel driving a Red Bull...)

5) overtaking move of the year: Fernando Alonso overtaking Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen around the outside on the opening lap of the Spanish GP to set up victory.
For the majority of the year, Alonso showed to be the best driver without a doubt.

LOWS

1) Maria de Villota's death at the age of 33 one year after her testing accident with Marussia, and the passing of Canadian GP track marshal Mark Robinson

2) Red Bull's dominance, making this year (the second part) the most boring in Formula 1 history. We were literally sleeping during some races. Some GPs were even without real highlights

3) McLaren's refusal to give up on the flawed MP4-28, a stubbornness which condemned the team to their worst season in living memory. Should have gone back to the 2012 car

4) Vettel, his arrogance and his behaviour, especially at the Malaysian Grand Prix against his team mate Webber.

In some GP he also looks at some other car from close (Ibrahimovic would say: "cazzo guardi?" - wtf are you looking at), as to copy, or if there was something irregular... while irregularities (used to be) in his own team...

5) tyres, for one reason or another Pirelli have been in the headlines all year. They're definitely the tyres of Inter (the football team) eheheWhen they changed the tyres during the season (that's not really fair...), then Vettel won all the races...

6) the appointment of Heikki Kovalainen (instead of 3rd driver Davide Valsecchi) as Kimi Raikkonen's replacement for 2 races, with the Finn subsequently conceding he under-estimated the scale of the challenge before him. Kovalainen failed to score a point.

...also, Lotus didn't pay Raikkonen for the season yet.

7) the stupidity of the new F1 fake fans, supporting the strongest team (a drink can, without a history, without a soul) "because they win", and commenting the results without a proper knowledge. Can't wait to see them supporting Marussia in a few years.

8) the food in Monaco... terrible. I don't know if it's because we're Italians, but that expensive shit is crazy.
That food was probably the famous pigeon on Monaco track...

9) losing wheels... seen it too often this year (especially from Williams... and Webber...), which makes F1 sound a bit naive... it's necessary to go back to basics...

10) the Formula 1 2014 calendar, the length and detail of which is still unknown at the belated time of writing.
Also, the 2014 driver market. The final composition of next year's grid still remains anyone's guess.
Well at least it keeps us interested in F1, 'cause the races weren't interesting at all